Resume Tips: Multi-dimensional online resumes aren’t the norm yet, but they will be

Today’s job search methods have evolved to be more interactive and social than ever before. Traditional job search methods are not good enough anymore and neither is a traditional resumé.

When writing a paper copy, black and white resumé, it can be difficult to portray your personality, goals, and work/volunteer accomplishments in an exciting way.

A well-written resume is an excellent tool to help you get the job you want, but there is a fine line between creating a resumé that shows personality and a resumé that is unprofessional.

One way to get around that is by creating a multi-dimensional online complement to your traditional resumé. (And don’t worry: you don’t need nerdy web skills to do it. (If you have nerdy web skills, though, you can set yourself apart by building a custom-designed blog or online portfolio.)

The clear front-runner in multi-dimensional online career tools is definitely VisualCV because it not only allows you to say where you’ve worked (like in a traditional resumé), it also encourages you to “show your work.”

If you already use LinkedIn, you may be wondering why you should create another career profile online.

According to VisualCV.com, LinkedIn and VisualCV go together like “peanut butter and jelly.” While LinkedIn and Twitter are excellent tools for professional networking and keeping in touch, VisualCV offers more multimedia capabilities which encourage you to show off your skills, portfolio and work experiences.

With VisualCV, you can personalize your online resumé to include recommendations (which you can collect on LinkedIn), a design portfolio, writing examples, audio and video clips, links to off-site work, your thesis, awards you have won, and anything else that will show a potential employer why you are right for the job.

Creating something like a VisualCV allows you to have a personal link, for example http://www.visualcv.com/yournamehere, that you can include in an online application, email or even at the top of your traditional resumé.

Or, turn your VisualCV into your traditional resumé by clicking the PDF option and saving it. It actually looks like a real resumé and you can email it just as easily as the boring one you created in Word.

Employers want to hire people who are creative and dynamic. Creating a VisualCV is a great way to maintain a constantly evolving resume that shows off your personality and skills in a way that a black and white resume cannot.

Creating a VisualCV also shows employers you are consciously promoting your online presence in a professional way.

Check out these examples:

New grad sports journalist – His resume includes not only a work history, but also the most important part of any journalists’ job hunt: his clippings. Everything he’s written is listed and linked to on the right side of the resumé.

Masters of international finance student – This masters student not only has some solid work experience, but he’s also received a few high-profile bursaries and walks the international walk by measuring his French and Japanese language skills at the bottom of the profile (rockstar and advanced, respectively).

Recent marketing grad – In marketing, the projects you’ve worked on and the people who will talk about you are key, so this new grad features a few of the projects he’s worked on, including a full PowerPoint presentation.

On the right-hand side there’s also a snippet from a reference letter written by his last boss, which opens into the original document.